TEMPUS Annual Report 1996
The European Commission has recently published the 1996 annual report for the TEMPUS programme which covers cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the field of higher education. TEMPUS follows a bottom-up approach, with most projects initiated at department or faculty level in order to answer best the demands of teaching staff and students. In recent years, some limited top-down projects have been introduced with the aim of steering activities in some areas. Today TEMPUS is funded through the PHARE and TACIS programmes which provide assistance to the Central and Eastern European countries and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union respectively. The main support form under TEMPUS is the Joint European Project (JEP) in which higher education institutions from EU countries and partner countries participate in a cooperative project. Other project forms are compact measures, aimed at administrative and organizational aspects, and individual mobility grants for staff from institutions in the PHARE countries to visit EU institutions and vice versa. The budget for TEMPUS during 1996 was ECU 83.5 million for PHARE countries and ECU 20.5 million for TACIS countries. During 1996, the Council approved the continuation of the programme until 30 June 2000. At the end of 1996 a total of 723 JEPs were supported by TEMPUS, with almost one-third of these approved during 1996.